Customizable Moldable Card Forms

thingiverse

Check out http://www.formcard.com - I'm not affiliated with them but I know a great idea when I see one! These DIY moldable PCL cards are functionally the same thing as Formcards, but these ones can be personalized. The form should be printed out of Ninjaflex or Semiflex. You can buy moldable plastic from any number of sources. I personally used Polly Plastics' PCL beads from Amazon. To make the card: Melt about 15g of plastic beads in hot water. Add coloring if desired and mix it in. Place the melted plastic on a flat surface (countertop, cookie sheet, etc). Press the mold over the blob of plastic and use a roller pin or flat press to squeeze the plastic evenly through the mold. A little bit of plastic should squirt out the ports in the corners. Allow to cool before removing the card from the form. If you are impatient, the cards will warp or be completely ruined. Trim off the plastic from the ports, and stick the card in your wallet! As shown in the photos, these cards can be made with images instead of just text, but it's a little more involved and can't be done with the Customizer App. If you have a particular request for an image-based card, please PM me. I may or may not be willing and able to accommodate every request, but it doesn't hurt to ask! Please respect the non-commercial license. If you would like to use this for commercial purposes (like putting your corporate logo on them) feel free to contact me. Another neat trick: In Customizer, change the length to 200 and the width to 25.4, and you'll get a personalized form for making these: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Plastics-Moldable-Plastic-Strips/dp/B018Q057VC/. One last thing for those of you who have read the instructions all the way to the end: you probably need to use a mold release agent to get the PCL to separate from the mold. I've had good luck with Buehler and terrible luck with those cheap silicone-based spray cans. If you come across some other mold release that works really well, please post a comment or PM me! Print Settings Use flexible filament like Ninjaflex or Semiflex.